Middle East & North Africa

24 March 2022; MEMO: A UN special rapporteur on Monday accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.

UN-appointed investigator, Michael Lynk, has been investigating rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. He said the situation on the ground met the legal definition of apartheid set out by international law.

The system, he added, ensures Israeli domination over Palestinians.

ADDIS ABABA, March 24 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's government on Thursday declared an immediate, unilateral truce in its conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces to allow aid into the war-ravaged northern province.

A spokesman for the Tigrayan forces did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement, which follows a visit by the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, to the capital Addis Ababa this week.

BEIRUT, March 24 (Reuters) - When a Lebanese bank told Aref Yassin it had closed accounts worth $20 million belonging to the professional syndicate he heads and issued a cheque for the balance that was worth a fifth of its face value, he took the matter to court.

The money, saved from engineers' subscriptions and deposited at Fransabank, was earmarked for healthcare and pensions covered by the syndicate for about 100,000 people who now face losing a lifeline in a country in the third year of an economic meltdown.

ANKARA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province on Thursday, the local DHA news agency reported.

The explosion occurred at a workplace in the third industrial estate, located on the central Kayapinar district, along the Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa highway route.

The agency reported that an oxygen cylinder at the workplace might have caused the explosion.

24 March 2022; MEMO: Israeli military on Tuesday received advanced missile and aircraft detection systems from the Defence Ministry, deploying it in the north of the country, local media reported.

The device is a massive balloon equipped with an advanced missile and aircraft detection radar-based system, the Times of Israel reported.

23 March 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has urged other Arab states to become involved in efforts to combat corruption by joining its anti-corruption network, stating that it is in the interest of developing countries to do so.

24 March 2022; MEMO: Turkey warned money lenders not to provide lira liquidity to companies looking to speculate in the offshore money market, Bloomberg reports.

According to the report, Turkish lira's offshore swap on Tuesday was becoming more difficult for foreign investors to hedge their exposure to lira assets. Due to offshore swap increase, Turkey's banking regülatör warned banks not to support investors trading liras offshore.

24 March 2022; MEMO: Relations between Sudan and Israel are being strengthened but have not reached the level of normalisation, Sudan's military leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan has said according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

According to the station, Al-Burhan said that the upcoming Sudanese government might be able to normalise relationship with Israel.

23 March 2022; MEMO: Holiday prices for Russian tourists looking to visit popular destinations, Turkey and Egypt, have almost doubled since invasion of Ukraine last month.

23 March 2022; MEMO:Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday and said Iran's priority was to strengthen strategic ties in a changing global scene after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Amirabdollahian told reporters on his arrival that his country stood with Syria in "the same trench" and that ties with Damascus were going through their best phase, Reuters reports.